The early Eighties were an interesting thing. The "disco sucks" movement had pretty much penetrated the national consciousness, and the music which defined the second half of the previous decade was sharply out of favor as early as 1980. Many thought the backlash owed a great deal to racism and homophobia, and, hell, it's not like folks stopped dancin'. They just stopped dancin' and calling the music they were dancin' to "disco." Many of the urban acts that remained popular through the early part of the decade still owed a pretty stylistic debt to disco.
Like Shalamar. This group was founded by Dick Griffey, a talent scout who was buddies with Don Cornelius, the popular host of TV's "Soul Train." The synergy should have been apparent because Shalamar was on 'Soul Train" more than those damn Care Free Curl commercials. Among the group's members were Jeffrey Daniels and Jody Watley, both of whom had been plucked from the lineup of Soul Train dancers. After a string of minor hits and an even longer string of lead singers, the group finally broke through with 1980's "The Second Time Around," a sunny piece of dance/pop that featured the emphatic vocals of new lead singer Howard Hewett. The song hit #1 R&B/Top Ten Pop and established Shalamar as household names, particularly in the urban community. Their songs were bubbly, the members were attractive, and they were the only group with the male/female vocal thing going on other than Rufus & Chaka Khan-a band that was headed towards a messy breakup.
Anyway, Three For Love was the second album of the Hewett era , and is widely regarded as their best album. The songs (mostly produced by Leon Sylvers of the "Boogie Fever"-singing 70's family act The Sylvers) are melodic, peppy and danceable. The album's two ballads are excellent and have become standards in the urban music world. And, this is one of the albums I remember most fondly from my youth. It was "kid friendly/Mom approved" in a way that not much music nowadays is.
The one thing that immediately sticks out about any Shalamar record is the vocal interplay between Jody and Howard. While Hewett was certainly capable of singing rings around the more thin-voiced Watley, he plays it pretty cool on this album. Despite the differences in vocal ability, they have a pretty good chemistry. "Make That Move" is a finger snappin' piece of dance/pop about-well-making that first move. Howard's switch from his normal register to falsetto in the "B" section of the verse is masterful, and this remains one of the great post-disco R&B songs of the early 80s. Jody's girlish chorus is fantastic as well. For the brothas and sistas that grew up in the roller-skating era, "make that move, right now bay-beh" is one of the more indelible choruses of the time.
Most of the album continues in that same uptempo pocket. The two switch off again on the uptempo, insistent "Full Of Fire" (a song that Willis used to teach Charlene how to dance on "Diff'rent Strokes"). "Attention To My Baby" slows the tempo slightly, for a summery midtempo jam, while the album closer, "Some Things Never Change" is a breezy declaration of love.
The album's most interesting uptempo song is "Pop Along Kid." This song marks the only lead vocal by third member Jeffrey Daniels, and is also one of the first songs to address the then-in-it's infancy craze of breakdancing. The song's rubbery funk groove is perfect for the backslides, headspins and windmills, and the song's lyrics, about a kid with superior dancin' skills-were perfect for Daniels, who was an accomplished dancer himself, appearing in several of Michael Jackson's videos, including "Beat It" and "Bad."
The album's true gems are the ballads. "This Is For The Lover In You" has become a quiet storm staple, sampled (or quoted) in more hip-hop records than you can think of, and covered by Babyface featuring LL Cool J a few years back ('Face even managed to recruit the three estranged members of Shalamar to appear on the track). This piano-based wedding song ("this ring means I'll always be true") is the perfect love song. Hewett injects the song with passion and the result is a classic. On the other side of the coin, the aching "Somewhere There's A Love" is a song about looking for that elusive perfect one. This tender ballad again contains some of Hewett's most emotional singing.
Three For Love may not top anyone's list of essential soul albums, but Shalamar have always been one of the genre's overlooked acts. That could possibly be due to the prefab put-together aspect of the group, or it could be that the act is too closely associated with disco. However, Three For Love is a solid, upbeat collection of songs, and-prefabrication be damned-Hewett is an "A" class vocalist (and all of the three have songwriting chops), giving them a bit more cred than the average TV-associated group.
This lineup of Shalamar made three more albums before dissolving in 1983. Hewett stayed on with a new incarnation of the group for one more album, before heading off into his own underappreciated solo career as a quiet storm/slow jam specialist. Daniels went to England, recorded one album, and faded away, while Jody Watley had the most successful solo career, coining the phrase "hasta la vista baby" (from her hit "Looking For A New Love"), winning a Best New Artist Grammy in 1987, and releasing a slew of hit singles with a sort of fashionista bizarro Janet Jackson Control image.
Three For Love isn't brain surgery (but who was making deep records in 1980), but it is a fun collection of well-produced uptempo dance jams-with killer ballads that certainly will appeal to the lover in you-or the lover in anyone!
Michael Speed
